gridiron

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

n. Football The field of play.

n. Football The game itself.

n. A metal structure high above the stage of a theater, from which ropes or cables are strung to scenery and lights.

n. A flat framework of parallel metal bars used for broiling meat or fish.

n. An object resembling such a framework.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

n. American football.

n. A generic term for American and Canadian football, particularly when used to distinguish from other codes of football.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English

n. A grated iron utensil for broiling flesh and fish over coals.

n. An openwork frame on which vessels are placed for examination, cleaning, and repairs.

n. A football field; -- so called because of the resemblance of the parallel marked yard lines to a gridiron{1}.

from The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

To cover with parallel lines or bars, like those of a gridiron: often said of railroads, as giving such an appearance to the map.

n. A grated utensil for broiling flesh and fish over coals or in front of a fire-grate, usually a square frame with a handle, short legs, and transverse bars.

n. A frame formed of cross-beams of wood or iron, on which a ship rests for inspection or repair at low water; a grid.

n. In Amer. foot-ball, a trivial term applied to the field of play, in allusion to the fact that it is crossed by transverse white lines every five yards. It is also sometimes called a checker-board, because recent rules provide for longitudinal lines as well.

n. A structure of planks erected above the stage of a theater to support the mechanism by which the drop-scenes, etc., are worked.

On closer examination the lots turn out to average less than four thousand square feet; the streets are narrow and are laid out in gridiron patterns; the houses are mere cabins; and what was once a pleasant bit of nature has been ruthlessly leveled and ripped up to make a subdivider's holiday.

He remedied this by the invention of what is often called the gridiron pendulum, made of several bars of steel and brass, and so arranged as to neutralize and correct the tendency of the pendulum to vary in length.

Up on the wall of the stage, just under a network of iron called the "gridiron" -- on which there are innumerable pulleys through which run ropes or "lines" that carry the scenery -- there is, in the older houses, a balcony called the "fly-gallery."

While we would not lay down an arbitrary arrangement for any farm, except upon a particular examination, and while we would by no means advocate what has been called the gridiron system -- of drains everywhere at equal depths and distances -- yet some system is absolutely essential, in any operation that approaches to thorough drainage.

St. Lawrence of Rome is said to have been martyred on an outdoor gridiron. Legend says that during his torture Lawrence cried out "I am already roasted on one side and, if thou wouldst have me well cooked, it is time to turn me on the other." Today statues of St. Lawrence usually depict him standing next to a gridiron.